


Genetically Enhanced

by ArcaneLee



Series: Zer0 Line [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Academy, Alien Sex, Borderlands 2, Borderlands presequel - Freeform, Children, Clones, Cute, Experiments, Fiona - Freeform, Fluffy, Gay, Genetics, Lilith - Freeform, M/M, MORDECAI - Freeform, OC, PWP, Sasha - Freeform, School, Sex, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Vault Hunters - Freeform, alien - Freeform, axton - Freeform, borderlands - Freeform, mature - Freeform, maya - Freeform, rhys - Freeform, rhys/zero, roland - Freeform, slow, tales from borderlands, vaugn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-27 20:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcaneLee/pseuds/ArcaneLee
Summary: When Zer0 comes to him with confidential information about his past, Rhys is interested in learning more about his favorite vault hunter. With Zer0, Rhys learns of the mysterious man’s origin and investigates the death of a young woman close to Zer0.Story diverts heavily from the canon of the game when it comes to Zer0. Several things have been changed.





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey N9ne!” The shout came from Ei8ht as he ran towards her. he looked so happy that N9ne couldn’t bear to tell him what she had found out. 

“Hey. Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for hours.” N9ne looked down at the paper in front of her. The headline read _Mysterious Vault Hunter leads group towards closing a vault! Who is he? No one knows!_ It was dumb, but it was a lead as she stared at the picture below. Zer0 was there, standing with a group of others she didn’t recognize. 

“Sorry! I had to talk to 5ive!” Ei8ht seemed sheepish, though still smiled at her. She couldn’t help but laugh. He kissed her cheek as a way of apologizing, both knowing it was no use fighting. 

“N9n-“ Ei8ht cut off as he spoke, staring off into the distance. N9ne turned to look, but only caught a glimpse of red before it disappeared. When she turned back, Ei8ht’s face was a ghostly white. 

“What’s wrong?” She had barely gotten the words out before Ei8ht began to speak. 

“We need to get 5ive and 4our! Now!” He turned as he spoke, heading back inside. She began to follow, but couldn’t help but turn once more. This time she saw the red eyes before anything else. She couldn’t move, barely could breathe. She was paralyzed as she stared at those blood red eyes. 

“N9ne, you shouldn’t have poked your nose where it does not belong.” The voice was light and airy, very feminine. 

“Please, don’t hurt me!” N9ne struggled to talk, forcing her hands to cover her stomach. It took much willpower, but the sudden attempt to move made the woman glance down at her stomach. It broke the eye contact long enough for her to move, but it was quickly made futile as the woman looked back at her. 

“My dear! You are carrying? I’m so glad you’re apart of the Zer0 line, otherwise this would be very difficult. That baby will be coming with me, even if you aren’t.” The woman smiled and her hand shot out, stabbing something into her stomach. N9ne wanted to scream, but nothing came out. She watched the woman slide the baby from N9ne’s stomach to a capsule designed to sustain life before birth, much like the ones that produced the others. 

N9ne felt tears leak onto her cheeks as she saw the baby. It was so sweet and looked just like its father. The woman wiped the tears from her cheeks, before sliding her blade into N9ne’s head. 

The last thing N9ne saw, was the woman kissing the top of the capsule that held her daughter. 


	2. One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I don’t do this often but apparently it needs to be pointed out. This is a fanfiction so it diverts HEAVIlY from the lore and canon facts of the game. In this fanfic, Zer0 is apart of a uniquely bred line of super soldiers. He is male in this story. The creators and in-game conversations refer to him as male so even if he doesn’t have announced gender, I can also refer to him as male in this fanfic. Might I also add that he is a fictional character and it doesn’t matter.

The sound of his office door slamming didn’t startle Rhys as much as the reveal of who exactly slammed it.

It was hard to be mad when one of his idols, Zer0, was standing in front of him.

Rhys stood, quickly hiding the noodles he had been eating, trying to be even 25% a professional. He was failing. Hard.

“I trust you.” Zer0’s voice was the same as always, barely any inflection and just enough personality to let you know it wasn’t a computer.

“Really? I mean, of course, what do you need?” Rhys began to tap his foot, nervous at the thought of Zer0, in his office. he had many, many, MANY, embarrassing things around his office. Including, but not limited to, a collection of headlines about Zer0 and a wanted poster that he found amongst Jack’s things, again featuring Zer0.

“I need a woman found. She is like me, in a way she is like a sister. The only other person who knows about this is Tannis and she can only locate her to Pandora.” Zer0 was fast-paced, but nothing Rhys’ couldn’t handle. Rhys immediately began to grow curious at the thought of seeing others like Zer0. If this woman could tell him more about his idol, then Rhys would be ecstatic.

“Of course! I’ll need a name, appearance, and other tidbits. I can ask Marcus and check the Atlas records for matching information. Obviously there may not be headlines about her, but I can definitely check.” Rhys was unsure if Zer0 was even listening to him, but he could feel the presence behind him. While Rhys tried many different options, with Zer0 feeding him slow information, he began to consider just how strange this was.

“Woman, my height. Her name is 6ix.” Nothing came up for that information, but it spiked Rhys’ attention.

“Are there more than just you two? I mean, thats a numerical name like yours.” Rhys looked up at Zer0, whose head was tilted down in his direction. A smile emoticon flashed on the screen of his mask for a couple seconds, filling Rhys with several emotions, but most noticeably making him blush a bright red.

“Yes, but that’s not our focus right now. Try dark hair, elemental control. She focuses on fire and ice.” Nothing. For the first time in his life, Rhys heard Zer0 hesitate.

“Siren tattoos on her whole body. Purple wings, except they don’t ever go away.” Even with the mask Rhys could feel the stare Zer0 gave him. Rhys began to count, confused as all six sirens where currently located, and none of them had full body tattoos.

“I don’t understand.” Rhys looked up at Zer0 once more, trying to get a glimpse of who Zer0 was under the mask.

“We are all genetically bred, except for me. I have the DNA that was made from a unique combination of two parents of different alien races and was then handed over to be experimented on. 6ix is the first successful attempt to combine my DNA with siren DNA. Lilith, Maya, and another siren contributed to her DNA, taken from them when they were children. I’m not even sure if they know. 6ix does not need to rely on eridium to be powerful, but if she were to ever take it, she could destroy a planet.” Zer0 let out a breath, as if a weight had been removed from his chest.

“I am the first of 9. Not all of us are still alive and one very close to me was recently killed. I need 6ix and your help to find who is responsible and if they are going after us all.” Zer0 handed Rhys a file, one so small it was one page with two paragraphs. Rhys felt jealous almost. Just how close were these two? Did Zer0 have a lover that he’d never known about?

Rhys tried to suppress the feelings and focus on the information, but with Zer0 right next to him, it was hard to deny just how much he enjoyed the vault hunters presence.

The computer dinged, much like a timer, letting them know Rhys had a message.

“Well, your search is over. She’s at Marcus’ shop right now, looking to track down a new gun. Marcus sent her this way and uh, said she was pretty.” Rhys felt his face redden as a laugh emoticon flashed on Zer0’s mask.

“Thank you. I’ll meet her outside. If you have any ideas about this, let me know. I don’t really know where to start.” Zer0 began to walk out the door, but stopped and looked at an article that Rhys had on his desk.

“Funny, I like how they thought I was female. Surprisingly not true. My race estimates gender a little differently, but my equivalent gender is male.” Rhys nearly chocked as the wink emoticon appeared on Zer0’s mask. He felt like melting right then and there. 

Rhys sat like that for almost an hour, trying to read the file, but only successfully thinking about Zer0.

**Official Death Certificate and Autopsy Reports**

_Subject: Unnamed_

_Age: Approximately 24, conflicting records_

_Details: Upon investigation, the body appears to be that of a 24-26 year-old female. There is a cut on her stomach that seems to have trace of eridium in it. Possible weapon may be powered by eridium or have been tainted in someway. The cause of death is the hole in the side of the head. Does not appear to be a gun shot as there is no exit wound and no bullet. More eridium residue is found within the skull._

_Upon internal examination it can be concluded that the female was pregnant before her death. The fetus was removed and can be assumed to be deceased as estimates place the female as 5 months pregnant, though several factors both confirm and conflict this._

_-Dr. Zed_


	3. Two

_ **Secret Atlas Affiliation?** _

_ **Atlas CEO Seen Having Private Talk With Famous Vault Hunter!** _

_ **Vault Hunter And CEO!** _

Each headline made her head hurt. It was ridiculous. Zer0 would never bother with a trivial being such as Rhys. She wanted to scream more and more, her vision waving as she squeezed her head between her hands.

“Mama?” The small voice made her head stop hurting. It was so sweet, but quiet. As if it were fading in and out.

“Ma-“ She turned, seeing just a glimpse of white and red before blinking it away. Stood before her was nothing more than a bandit, looking at her hesitantly.

“The-“ his words were cut short as her blade sunk into his chest. She let out a short sigh, looking once more at the headlines.

“God, I hate Pandora.”

-

Zer0 stood before 6ix, someone he hadn’t seen in over a decade. He felt a little bad about just leaving Rhys with all this information and not explaining more, but he pushed that down as he walked towards 6ix. Her sleek mask was a dark blue, almost identical to his.

“Zer0!” 6ix rushed towards him, hugging him close. Zer0 felt relieved that she seemed to miss him. To be one his side.

“Something had happened 6ix. One of us has been killed.” Zer0 lead her inside, hoping to explain the situation to her.

“Was it Se7en? I haven’t heard from him in so long! He was always the most worrisome.” 6ix seemed so concerned as she quickly unclipped her mask from her suit. Zer0 had forgotten how easily she always let other see who she was, of course she also looked much more normal.

They reached Rhys’ office quickly, avoiding the stares of the employees who had never seen someone like Zer0 before. Rhys sat up quickly as they entered, Zer0 couldn’t help but be amused at the thought of Rhys feeling like he needed to remain professional around him when, in all honesty, Rhys was probably the most unprofessional man Zer0 had ever met.

“6ix, this is Rhys. He’s helping me. He can be trusted as he is a close friend, we’ve worked together before.” Zer0’s words came out in a rush. Seeing 6ix reminded him that this was real. This was so much more real now. She was really dead. N9ne was really gone. He pushed back the want to cry and composed himself.

Rhys had been showing 6ix the file. She seemed confused, as the presence of eridium would make it seem like N9ne had been taking it, but the fact that it was only in her wounds said otherwise. What hurt the worst, was that she was pregnant.

“It says here she was nameless, but if she was apart of our line then she would have had to have a numerical name like us. It’s almost a requirement. It’s how we tell what order we were born in.” 6ix did a similar thing to Rhys when she was thinking. She would mutter and pace, one time she even did handstands while thinking. Rhys was obviously listening to her, taking a few notes of the few things she said.

“She did. Her name is N9ne. She was only 27, she had just reached maturation. Only Ei8ht, 5ive, and 4our knew about her as 4our and 5ive raised her and Ei8ht back home. Her body was sent to me here by them. They want to know what happened and I offered to investigate.” Zer0 spoke in the same slow and clear voice, but he could feel the emotion push and nudge until it almost leaked out.

“Hey Zer0, we might have another issue. Check out some of these news articles.” Rhys sounded hesitant as he flipped the screen towards Zer0.

_ **ATLAS CEO AND MYSTERIOUS VAULT HUNTER SEEN FRATERNIZING IN OFFICE** _

_Zer0, the mysterious and appealing vault hunter, was seen going into the Atlas building this morning. Normally this would not be interesting, but several outside sources claim he went straight into CEO Rhys’ office! Is this the start of a torrid love affair or just a ploy for Zer0 to get free guns and upgrades from one of the leading companies? Find out more on page. 3!_

Zer0 swore, sighing softly. He should have known something like this would happen. Atlas is such a popular thing right now and that slimy ‘journalists’ in Sanctuary was running out of material.

“It’s no matter. Just ignore it. I’ll break someone’s neck before they get to me.” Zer0 held in a laugh at Rhys’ face. He was blushing and looking like he’d throw up all at the same time.

“You Pandorans are so weird. Something like this would barely be interesting where we are from. You should ask Zer0 about his past some time if you think this is scandalous. Zer0, you know where to find me if you need anything. I’ll look into somethings and tell you when I find something.” 6ix was laughing as she left, obviously entertained at how scandalized Rhys looked. Zer0 felt the same amusement, but also a bit of something else. Something he couldn’t name and hadn’t felt in a long time.

“We leave tomorrow. Be ready. Preferably have a gun. I don’t want to have to defend you completely.” Zer0 told Rhys as he followed 6ix out. The winking emoticon flashed on the screen of his mask once more, making Rhys nearly melt into his chair. One look and someone would have thought the poor man’s face was on fire with out red it was.

Rhys watched them leave, settling back into his chair as another page of the ‘news’ flashed on his screen, sent by one of his employees.

_ **SEVERAL BANDITS FOUND SPIKED ON POLES OUTSIDE OF FROSTBURN CANYON’S ERIDIUM MINE.** _

_Recently, Atlas had taken over a small, unknown eridium mine Hyperion left behind. Reportedly they had been using it to construct and mine parts for their infamous gun lines. This was a huge step in improvement for the once desolate company under the new CEO’s supervision. However several reports have come in saying that the bodies of bandits have been found spiked to poles outside the entrance. Is this a threat? Or a warning that someone has already taken over? We will find out!_


End file.
